A brand guide is a document that shows how to use your logo, colors, fonts, and voice consistently everywhere your business appears. If anyone besides you creates anything for your business, or you want your website, social media, and printed materials to feel like one cohesive brand, you'll benefit from having one.
Consistency is what makes a brand recognizable, and recognition builds trust. When your website, business cards, packaging, and Instagram all look like they belong together, customers feel like they know you, even before they've worked with you.
What is a brand guide?
A brand guide, sometimes called a brand style guide, is your business's instruction manual for how it looks and sounds. It gathers your brand decisions in one place so they don't live only in your head.
It answers questions like:
- Which version of the logo should go on a social media profile?
- What exact shade of green is "our green"?
- Which fonts go on headings, and which on body text?
- How should our captions and emails sound?
What's included in a brand guide?
Every brand guide is a little different, but most include:
Logo versions and usage
- Your primary logo, plus alternate versions for different spaces, such as horizontal or stacked layouts or a simple icon
- How much space to leave around your logo
- The smallest size it should appear
- Examples of what not to do, like stretching, recoloring, or adding effects
Color palette
- Your brand colors, with the codes needed to match them exactly: HEX and RGB for screens, and CMYK for print
- Guidance on which colors are primary and which are accents
Typography
- Your brand fonts and where each one is used
- How fonts pair together for headings, subheadings, and body text
Visual style (depending on the brand)
- Photo style, patterns, icons, or graphic elements that feel "on brand"
Voice and messaging (depending on the brand)
- How your brand sounds, such as friendly, polished, or playful
- Key phrases or ways you describe your business
What's the difference between a logo and a brand?
Your logo is one piece of your brand. Your brand is the whole experience: your logo, colors, fonts, photos, words, and how people feel when they interact with your business.
A great logo used inconsistently, with different colors on your website, a stretched version on Facebook, and a random font on your business cards, won't build the recognition it could. A brand guide is what connects all those pieces.
Do small businesses really need a brand guide?
Not every business needs a long, detailed one, especially when you're just starting out. But most businesses benefit from at least a simple guide once any of these are true:
- Someone else creates things for your business, like a virtual assistant, a social media helper, a printer, or a web designer
- You make graphics yourself and find yourself second-guessing colors and fonts every time
- Your materials don't quite match each other
- You're ordering printed materials, such as business cards, stickers, signage, or packaging
- You're launching or redesigning a website
- Your business is growing, and you want it to look more established
If you've ever pulled up an old post just to find the color you used, a brand guide will save you time.
Who uses a brand guide?
More people than you might expect:
- You, every time you make a social media graphic, email, or flyer
- Your web designer, to carry your brand into your website
- Printers, to match your colors and use the right logo files
- Team members or contractors who post, write, or design for you
- Sign makers, event vendors, and collaborators who feature your business
What file types should come with your logo?
When you work with a designer, you should receive your logo in formats that cover everyday uses:
- PNG: great for websites and social media, and supports transparent backgrounds
- JPG: a common, widely compatible image format for everyday use
- PDF: handy for printing and sharing
- SVG: a vector format that can scale to any size without getting blurry, which is useful for websites and larger printed pieces
Having the right file ready means you're not stuck with a pixelated logo when you need it most.
How does a brand guide help your website?
Your website is often the place where your brand shows up in the most detail, with colors, fonts, photos, buttons, and words all working together. A brand guide gives your web designer everything they need to build a site that feels like a natural extension of your business.
That's why I love designing brands and websites together. When they're created as one project, everything feels cohesive from the first click. My Branding + Web Design Suite is my most popular option for exactly that reason.
Can you create a brand guide yourself?
You can put together a simple one. Start by writing down:
- Your logo files and where each version is used
- Your brand colors with their codes
- Your fonts
- A few words that describe how your brand should feel
Even a one-page version is better than nothing.
Where a designer helps is in making those choices intentional, like choosing colors that appeal to your ideal customers, fonts that pair well and stay readable, and a logo that works just as well on a tiny social media icon as on a storefront sign.
How often should you update your brand guide?
Update it when your brand changes, such as a new logo, a new color, or a shift in who you serve. Businesses grow and evolve, and your brand should reflect where you are now, not just where you started.
If your brand guide no longer matches how your business looks or sounds, that's usually a sign it's time for a refresh.
What's included in my Brand Identity Package?
My Brand Identity Package includes:
- A primary logo, plus one or two alternate versions
- A color palette
- Font pairings
- A brand style guide that brings it all together
- Two rounds of revisions
- Logo files in PNG, JPG, PDF, and SVG formats
Projects typically take three to five weeks. Additional revision rounds are available if you need them.
Ready to make your brand feel consistent everywhere?
Whether you're starting fresh or your business has outgrown its original look, I'd love to help. Learn more about branding and logo design, explore how branding and web design work together, or browse my portfolio to see recent projects.
Every project starts with a free 30-minute consult where we talk through your business, your customers, and where you're headed.
